Meet the Author/Illustrator

Pat Cummings

Pat Cummings was born in Chicago. However, her family moved often because her father was in the army. They lived in Germany, in Japan, and in several different states. When she got to a new school, Pat Cummings's interest in art helped her to meet other kids.

Since she was very small, Pat Cummings has been drawing. It was in fifth grade that she first learned that art could be a good business. She sold her pictures of ballerinas for nickels, dimes, or sweets. She went on to study art at college, and then began working as a graphic artist. Her first job was drawing posters for a children's theater.

Pat Cummings says that her ideas for stories or for pictures often come from things around her or from her dreams. Sometimes, though, ideas just hit her "smack in the head when I'm doing something like swimming or reading." She has even been known to get up and start painting in the middle of the night because an idea is keeping her awake.

Today, Pat Cummings lives and works in a loft in Brooklyn, New York. From her windows she can see the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

To make her pictures personal, she often uses her family and friends as models.

Like her character Alex in Carousel, Pat Cummings has some great dreams about flying!